The words, spoken in a harsh voice, fell gratingly on Donald's ears, and brought to an abrupt end the happy thoughts with which his mind was occupied. He stopped, forcing the growling Mike behind him, as Judd stepped out from the bushes, squarely across his path.
"I would be glad to stop and talk with you, Judd, but I'm due in Fayville before noon, and have already stayed too long at Big Jerry's."
"Yo' hev," was the prompt and surly reply.
"What the devil do you mean by that?" snapped Donald, with rising ire.
"What I says, goes," was the reply. "This hyar place air a powerful good one fer yo' ter keep erway from, stranger."
"Indeed? Well, you don't own it."
The younger man's color heightened, and his lean jaws clamped together.
"I warns ye fair," he said, after a brief pause.
"And I don't accept such a warning from any one," shot back Donald, momentarily growing more angry. "It's no business of yours, whether I go or stay."
"I makes hit my business," replied the other sullenly. "Big Jerry air growin' old an' foolish, I reckon; but I seen what I seen, an' thar haint no city man ergoin' ter come up hyar an' make trouble fer a gal uv our'n."